I wrote goals for myself last year and that list gave me much need focus for the year. I thought I’d do it again this year- please feel free to weigh in on my goals or link to your own in the comments!

2010 Goals

1. BE PRESENT. This is my theme for the year. We have a lot going on in our family right now while Superman is finishing school, and it is very easy for me to spend all my time multi-tasking. I find my mind always half on what is going on around me and half on the things that need to be accomplished elsewhere. I am working very hard to be present with the people I love and saving the worry for later. One of the ways I’m trying to do this is to make a list for myself of when I will do things (work related tasks, house keeping, etc.) so that when those “I should be doing xyz” thoughts start popping up I can dismiss them easily because I’ve already planned a separate time to accomplish those tasks. Cleaning can wait. My children will not be this age forever.

2. Commit to Daily Scripture. I’ve been reading and re-reading posts by Ann Voskamp about the way Scripture is a part of the daily life of the family, and praying about ways to make changes in our own family concerning Scripture. I grew up in a practicing Christian home. Both of my parents became believers in high school and are the only believers in their families to this day. My husband came to Christ as an adult, so he doesn’t know all of the Bible stories I learned as a child and the practice of daily Scripture reading and prayer is still not completely habit. One of the goals we share for this year is daily Scripture reading and prayer with the boys, developing this to be a habit for our family so that our boys grow up to know that Word is meant to be read, prayed and processed daily. It is a habit I learned early on, and one that Superman is still developing. My own personal goal to go along with our family goal is to commit to Scripture memory this year. I’m still working out specific plans (whether it’s to memorize a whole book or separate verses I haven’t quite decided yet) and I’ll let you know when I settle on something.

3. Track the non-fiction I read this year. I read a very large amount of non-fic each year and I’m curious to know just how much. We’ll just say that I check out an average of 100 books per month at our local library, and about 30 of those are for the boys. The rest are for me, with the occasional audio book for Superman to listen to while he drives for work.

4. Raise my fiction goal to 24 fiction books this year, 2 per month. I read more fiction in 2009 than I read in all of 2006, 2007, and 2008 combined. I chalk that fiction deficit up to having two babies! Non-fic was a ton easier to pick up and put down, plus I went on a parenting/mothering book craze for about 2 years.

5. Plan time to re-charge during the week, especially January-May while Superman is finishing school. Superman will be in class 2 nights per week this semester, and will have 2 online classes as well. Because he’s taking an overload he will have to be even more diligent about his study time, which means that I will have a good amount of free time on my hands. I need to be sure to use at least some of that time to do things that bring me energy and refreshment so that on the nights he is home I will have energy and attention for him.

6. Keep up with great eating habits. Last year we worked really hard at changing our eating habits, and implented a few things that helped tremendously- we now buy and eat seasonally for our fresh ingredients, and we do not purchase items that are not good for us. No junk food in the house means no “surprise” midnight eating. We also did away with a lot of pre-prepared foods, which also saves us quite a lot on our food budget. Superman has lost and kept off the weight he wanted to take care of, and I feel a million times better these days. I want to continue the things we learned last year, but also to take it into the new year with a few improvements. I need to keep up consistently on meal planning and because of our odd dinner time schedule I need to make more use of my crockpots to provide healthy meals on the nights I have to work through the dinner hour.

7. Keep/Toss/Donate 15 items per day for 30 days. I did this challenge last year in January/February and it felt like a gigantic breath of fresh air for our house. I’m doing it again, thinking of specific places- the hall coat closet, the linen closet, the boys’ toys . . . the house certainly feels full again and we need to find white space.

8. Move systematically through the house to declutter. I’m working through this again this year, because it really helped to devote one month to each room of the house so that by the time November hit I didn’t have to do any mad dash holiday cleaning. I got a lot done by working just a little bit each day- I think that is the system that just works best for me.

Branch out into some harder patterns for myself. I have my eye on a certain dress.

Become more confident in the skills I already have instead of holding myself back.

Make the boys’ Easter shirts and ties for this year. Superman’s tie too. 🙂

Cut into some of the “special” material I’ve been hoarding!

10. Re-evaluate my goals every 3 months to stay on task. These goals are not set in stone; if something isn’t working I reserve the right to make a change! I tried to set goals that I have control over, considering whether or not they are actually possible and if they serve our family or myself well. Checking in and an occasional re-evaluation is definitely necessary for me.